Four reasons as to why Riley Anderson has mixed gender emotions.
I may be cheating, as this is not necessarily a fanfiction per say, but instead an interesting piece of analysis on the animated movie: Inside Out. Across all promotional material, trailers and reviews, there was one point that was continually brought up in regards to the movie. Why does Riley Anderson have emotions of both genders, whilst everyone else seemingly sticks to one? In this piece I will propose four possible explanations for this, as part of a larger work I am producing for school. Enjoy, and let me know what you think of these theories in the review section.
Explanation one: Children can inherit emotions from one or both parents.
It is entirely possible that Riley Anderson inherited the "lead" emotions from each of her parents. In the infamous dinner scene we can see the HQs of both Riley's mother and father. In her father's mind we can see Anger leading, followed by Fear. This correlates with Fear and Anger being the only male emotions in Riley's mind. Conversely, Sadness leads in the mind of Riley's mother, a female emotion in Riley's mind. Finally we know from interviews with Pixar staff that Riley's lead emotion (and the first to be created) is Joy, and so we can assume that this emotion was inherited from neither parent.
From this data we can assume that each person has a "lead" that is not inherited, whilst the other four other emotions can be inherited from either parent. This is supported by the fact that four out of five of Riley's emotions correlate to this pattern, with the exception of Disgust which we must assume was inherited from Riley's mother. I believe this is a sound theory, but not the most plausible due to the strong amount of evidence against it.
Evidence for:
Riley's male emotions match exactly to the lead emotions of her father.
Sadness, a female emotion, is the lead emotion of Riley's mother.
Evidence against:
Riley is THE ONLY character in the movie shown to have mixed emotions. Surely if anyone can inherit emotions from either parent, mixed emotions would be much more common.
Disgust, a female emotion of Riley is not shown to be a leader in the mind of Riley's mother, making her an anomaly in this theory.
Theory plausibility: 15%
Explanation two: Puberty changes everything…
Based on the ending of Inside Out, we know Riley Anderson has not experienced puberty yet, with the puberty alarm installed at the end of the film obviously foreshadowing its arrival. We also know that there is not a single adult shown in the film that has mixed gender emotions. This in itself is not extraordinary, but it is interesting to note we are also not shown the emotions of any children of a younger age than Riley (aside from Riley herself). It could be argued that the "cool" girl from Riley's class has emotions of only a single gender, but this works both ways. Traditionally cool girls are those who are more emotionally mature, those that may have hit puberty, and so we cannot judge this girl the same way as Riley, and must assume she is more developed than Riley.
It is possible that once puberty is ushered in, along with a heightened state of emotional maturity and a stronger understanding of the inner self, all the emotions eventually conform to one gender, which would explain why all adults seemingly have emotions of only one gender. I find this theory interesting and certainly more plausible than the first, largely due to the lack of as much evidence against it. After all, if new emotions can be born, then it is not implausible to say emotions can be altered.
Evidence for:
All adults we see have emotions of only one gender, and these are people who have obviously experienced puberty.
We do not see the emotions of any pre-pubescent children besides Riley, so it is not a stretch to assume Riley's mind is the norm.
Riley is shown to not have much emotional maturity during the film, and so it is fair to say she doesn't know who she truly is yet.
Evidence against:
Whilst we could assume Riley's mind is the norm for prepubescent children, we could also say that since she is the only example, we cannot know if all children like her have mixed emotions.
We do not yet know the full effects of the puberty alarm/button.
Theory plausibility: 50%
Explanation three: Emotions are genderless.
When analysing the emotions, we must remember that despite Pixar's creativity, emotions are nothing more than feelings and electric signals in a physical, real brain. We could say that since we are observing these emotions (beings of raw energy, which is even referenced by the light particles incorporated into their designs), we see what we want to see, and in reality the emotions have no gender, with the differences we see being purely aesthetic. Whilst easily the most uninteresting of the theories, it is plausible to assume that as emotions, their gender is unimportant and simply a meaningless representation used by us to understand them. This is further reinforced by the creators of Inside Out wanting to make their "brain world" as realistic as possible; meaning real life details like these cannot be overlooked.
Evidence for:
Real life logic and neuroscience.
The development process of the film.
Evidence against:
The emotions clearly have male/female physical characteristics, often mimicking the gender and interests of the person they control.
Theory plausibility: 30%
Explanation four: Riley is transgender/gender fluid/non binary.
Before I begin this point, I would like to state that I have nothing against the LBGT community and fully support their struggle, to a certain extent. When researching this, I noticed a much higher proportion of ideas proposed than expected suggested Riley was gender fluid, meaning when she is older, the gender she will identify as on any given day can change between male, female or neither. This argument was fuelled by Riley being the only character in Inside Out to have mixed gender emotions, whilst everyone else (including her parents) has single-gender emotions. It was also easily the most popular theory proposed.
As I have already mentioned, this theory rests on the fact that Riley seems to be an exception in society, as she is the only character shown to have mixed-gender emotions. But to confirm or deny this theory we must examine whether or not Riley is shown to be unsatisfied with her gender. In her mind, we can see a large number of both traditionally male and female elements. On one hand Riley does enjoy some traditionally boyish activities, such as ice hockey, but on the other she does have a number of "girly" elements. These include "fairy unicorn" in her dreams, the abundance of pink and purple in her mind and the boyfriend generator in Imagination land.
This theory begins to falter however when we consider that we have not seen other children in the same state of development as Riley, and so do not know if her case is unique or rare. Another point against this theory is the ending of the movie. If Riley did experience gender dysphoria, this would have come to life by the end of the movie when she becomes a more mature, emotionally complex child. But instead we see more activities and interests appear typical of teenage girls, such as "Boyband Island" and "Teen Vampire Island". Whilst it is still possible that the emotions signify that Riley could become gender-fluid in the future, all of Riley's actions, interests and personality show otherwise. Finally, the short that will be released later in the year: Riley's First Date also acts against this, as Riley is statistically much more likely to be a heterosexual or bisexual female than a gay male later in life.
I also believe this theory is as popular as it is due to the fact that people see what they want to see. Transgender and non-binary people receive little media focus in films and TV, and so it would be beneficial to some for them to believe that the main character in such a mainstream film has gender identity issues. The problem stems that Pixar as a company does not produce films sophisticated or forward-thinking enough to handle issues like this, and the world of Inside Out likely did not even factor in this possibility when it was created. Everything in the universe of Inside Out points to Riley being an ordinary girl growing up, facing ordinary everyday problems and obstacles that people like her would face. The daughters of the creators were consulted, as were neuroscientists who gave away information on the behaviours of normal, cisgender girls of Riley's age. This is what the character of Riley was based on, and she was designed to be as relatable as possible to girls of that age, the majority of which identify as female. Whether or not her emotions are all female is irrelevant, as all other signs point to Riley as identifying as female. She may become gender-fluid in the future, but as the end of the film shows, this is unlikely. I personally believe Riley is much more likely to be a tomboy that gender fluid, as she enjoys a whole spectrum of activities, but displays many of the characteristics of real-life, cisgender, heterosexual girls of her age. Finally, the creators have actively said that Riley was originally intended to have all female emotions, but Fear and Anger were made male to give the film an appeal to boys, in order to maximise exposure. Because of this, we should treat Riley as if she DOES have all female emotions, as fear and Anger are ONLY male for marketing purposes, and this decision is not meant to affect the character in any way.
Evidence for:
It is unexplained why Riley's emotions are multi-gendered, and this seems unique based on what we have seen of the world.
Inside Out was part of a push by Disney to create more diversity between characters, and a non-binary character would be a logical step in this.
Evidence against:
We DO NOT KNOW if Riley is unique in having multi-gendered emotions for girls her age.
It is statistically unlikely for Riley to have gender dysphoria.
Throughout the film, Riley displays no dissatisfaction with her gender.
She was originally intended to have all female emotions.
The director has stated that the parents and other people were intended to also have mixed emotions, but they were given emotions of one gender simply to make scenes easier to follow.
Theory plausibility: 20%
So which theory do you think is the most plausible? Did you find my analysis interesting? Please tell me what you thought in the review section!